Romani, Vlax

RMY

threatened

Alternate Names: Danubian, Gypsy, Romanese, Tsigene, Vlax Romany

Dialects: Churari (Churarícko, Sievemakers), Eastern Vlax Romani (Bisa), Ghagar, Grekurja (Greco), Kalderash (Coppersmith, Kelderashícko), Lovari (Lovarícko), Machvano (Machvanmcko), North Albanian, Sedentary Bulgaria, Sedentary Romania, Serbo-Bosnian, South Albanian, Ukraine-Moldavia, Zagundzi. Kalderash, Ursari, and Churari are occupational ethnonyms; Machvano is a geographical one. Other names are ‘Argintari’, silversmith and ‘Lingurari’, spoonmakers. Machvano and Serbian Kalderash have south Slavic superstratum; Russian Kalderash influenced by east Slavic, mainly Russian ,; Lovari influenced by Hungarian ,; Grekurja is probably Turkish , influenced, distinct from Greek Romani dialect of Balkan Romani ,. All 20 or more Vlax dialects are inherently intelligible; differences are mainly lexical and sociolinguistic (I. Hancock). A member of macrolanguage Romany ,.

Genealogy:

Indo-European
Indo-Iranian
Indo-Aryan
Central zone
Romani
Vlax

Demographics: 242,000 in Romania (2002 census). 6,000,000 to 11,000,000 Gypsies in the world (1987 I. Hancock). Population total all countries: 484,780.

Language Use: Some children are not learning the language.

Language Development: Grammar. NT: 1984–1995.

Writing System: Cyrillic, Latin

Nation of Origin: Romania

Other Comments: Ethnic groups: Chache, Kalderari, Lovári. Ethnonym: Roma. Christian.